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The Italian skier Matteo Franzoso has died at the age of 25 following a crash during pre-season training in Chile at the weekend, his country’s winter sports federation (FISI) has confirmed.
After suffering “a major head trauma” in the accident at the La Parva track on Saturday, Franzoso was taken by helicopter to the intensive care unit of a clinic in Santiago and placed in an induced coma. The FISI confirmed on Monday that he did not recover after “cranial trauma” and a subsequent swelling of his brain.
“It is a tragedy for the family and for our sport,” the FISI president Flavio Roda said in a statement on Monday. “It is absolutely necessary to do everything possible to ensure that such episodes do not happen again.”
“At this sad and painful time, I want to tell all athletes and coaches, in all sports, that the federation is by their side and that they will find all the support they need,” Roda added. “I ask for the utmost respect for Matteo’s family, whom we will stand by for as long as necessary.”
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Franzoso crashed through two layers of safety fencing and hit another type of fence positioned six to seven metres outside the course, the FISI said. He is the second elite Italian skier to die in a training incident within the past year, after the death of junior champion Matilde Lorenzi at Val Senales in October 2024.
A part of Italy’s World Cup team since 2021, Franzoso was training alongside other Italian skiers including Dominik Paris, Christof Innerhofer and Mattia Casse in Chile. The team are preparing to race on home snow at the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February, but those preparations have now been marked by tragedy.
The US skier and Olympic gold medallist Lindsey Vonn posted a black and white picture of Franzoso on Instagram. “This is incredibly sad,” Vonn wrote. “I was skiing this exact slope three weeks ago … RIP Matteo. My sincere condolences to his family and loved ones.”
Franzoso made 17 World Cup appearances and finished 28th in the Super-G event at the Olympic host venue, Cortina d’Ampezzo, in 2023 – his best performance at alpine skiing’s highest level.
He also won a super-G race on the second-tier Europa Cup circuit in 2021, having finished fourth in the downhill at the world junior championships in 2020.
